Luke Littler has revealed Gian van Veen effectively gave up at the end of his feisty Premier League Darts match in Manchester earlier this month, which led to him calling his opponent a “cry baby”.
Van Veen won a controversial match in early April where Littler reacted angrily after his opponent turned towards him when throwing match darts in a dramatic deciding leg.
The Dutchman told Sky Sports that Littler was “out of order” for “celebrating towards the crowd” which caused him to stare at Littler, who went on to miss match darts at double himself before losing the contest.
However, Littler spoke about the incident from his perspective for the first time ahead of this week’s Premier League Darts in Rotterdam, live on Sky Sports on Thursday from 6pm – where the pair could meet in the semi-finals.
“What other people didn’t see was, as I’ve walked back around, I’m still looking that way [to the crowd] and he’s put his darts down but no one sees that,” he told Online Darts.
“I think he’s the one who’s not doing his job, obviously being respectful. I think that’s the first-ever time I’ve seen someone put their darts down in front of my face.
“I was like, ‘why?’ And obviously I come inside [the double to win the match]. I called him a cry baby because there was no need for it. There was no need for him to put his darts down. When he won, I picked my darts up and I said, ‘well done, you got the win’.”
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Highlights of Littler’s quarter-final clash with Van Veen in Manchester
Littler also stated there was “no need” for Van Veen to stare at him when he still had not thrown his three darts.
He added: “From my point of view, I’m looking up at the TV, I’m just thinking in my head, ‘he’s not going to miss. Even if he gets a shot at the bullseye, Gian’s one of the best bull hitters in the game’.”
“When he came inside the double 15, I looked up, had a drink of my water, and then I did a little fist bump towards Faith (Littler’s girlfriend) and her dad. That’s when the fans started screaming, so I was like ‘come on’ to them.
“But then there was no need for Gian to look back and stare at me. He’s still got a dart in hand, so really he should just step back, look at the floor, and then throw his last dart.
“So he’s staring at me, and he’s caught me… so I didn’t do it to him. I did it to Faith and her dad, the whole crowd.”
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Van Veen explains his side of the heated ending to his Premier League match with Littler
Littler plans to speak to Van Veen
Littler produced his worst televised average (83.94) last week in Brighton in the Premier League Darts in a 6-4 defeat to Stephen Bunting.
The 18-year-old put the poor performance down to a lack of practice and that he “didn’t want to be there”.
“Thursday night didn’t get to plan. I had the worst average. I knew it was pretty bad even when I got on stage I didn’t want to be there. I just couldn’t be bothered,” he said.
“I think I only had about 18 hours at home. I didn’t get much time to practise. Obviously I practised before the game but it didn’t go to plan.”
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Wayne Mardle took a closer look at what caused the fiery end to the match
Van Veen also lost his first match last Thursday, so the pair did not speak to each other and also practised in different rooms, which Littler says is normal.
He said: “I turned up about two-and-a-half hours before [the event]. People were on about the practice rooms, I spoke to the security and I was like, ‘who’s where?’ and it was like Gian, Luke, Jonny and Michael, so there were four in that one, then the other practice room had three, so it evens out a bit.
“Most practice rooms have two rooms and we are altogether. Everyone needs to forget that now. Me and Gian haven’t spoken, but I’m sure we will. We can meet in the semi-finals in Rotterdam.”
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Littler reacts to the Brighton crowd with a shrug of the shoulders and pointing to his ear after hearing some boos during his walk-on
Littler thinks other incidents in darts were more heated than his exchange with Van Veen, pointing to arguments between Gerwyn Price and Daryl Gurney on the stage.
“It gets more people watching it. Now people want to watch me and Gian. There’s obviously going to be a rivalry. There’s a rivalry week in, week out. He’s beaten me a few times, I’ve beaten him a few times,” he said.
“Just like all the other players, we’ve got rivalry with each other. I’m sure we’ll talk sometime. But other than that, I’ve just got to carry on with my darts.”
Who will win this year’s Premier League Darts? Luke Humphries is defending his title and you can watch the action every single Thursday until May 28, live on Sky Sports. Stream darts and more top sport with NOW.
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